“I’m not going anywhere,” Margaret said.
Daniel smiled.
It was not a warm smile.
It was a prepared one.
“Just come take a look, Mom,” he said. “It’s easier if we do this calmly.”
Calmly was a word Margaret had come to distrust.
People used it when they wanted obedience to look like peace.
They used it when they had already chosen the outcome and only needed the victim to stop making the room uncomfortable.
Margaret did not raise her voice.
She did not throw the suitcase back at them.
